At Cesar Chavez Middle School in Oceanside, our Art Club students get to experience an exciting mix of Art History and Art Practice. Each week students focus on a particular art movement, as well as a prominent artist or two from that period, including Impressionism (Monet), Expressionism (Munch and Van Gogh), and Cubism (Picasso).

Students start by researching each art movement’s history, as well as the aesthetic features that characterize its works—then, they get the chance to put that knowledge to use by reproducing artworks, using the techniques they learned about. At the end of the six-week course, each student will have their own portfolio to show off the skills they’ve developed in their studies.

This weekend, arc students volunteered at the Stop Cancer 5K in Van Nuys. Students met at Woodley Park at 6am, and you all can imagine how hard it was to wake up extra early on a Sunday! At the event, students were in charge of the T-Shirt and Goodie Bag distribution station. Stop Cancer Volunteer Coordinator Shannon Nelson complimented them, reporting that she “was impressed and pleased with the work [arc‘s] students did. We would love to have you guys back next year!”

Students affirmed the importance of giving back to the community and building awareness for a great cause ￼￼￼which involves many people around the world. This year’s walk raised more than $350,000 to help fund for cancer research, prevention and cures!

Did you know it only takes $8.50 a day to keep a student safe, stimulated, and on the path to success? Let’s work together and hit our $50,000 goal! We’ve reached 13% of our goal so far, but with your help, let’s see how much farther we can go! We will also be responding to and retweeting the posts you make.

On May 21, 2014, an entire community – comprised of students from seven urban L.A. high schools – learned that their arc after school programs would be abruptly discontinued following a single state budget decision.

But we are determined to raise the funds to continue the programming on our own. We need your help to raise $50,000 to keep the after-school programs running until we can apply for more funding. Stand with us and support this cause by doing the following:

Visiting our Indiegogo campaign page (http://igg.me/at/bringbackafterschool) and making a donation to help us reach our goal of $50,000. This is also a great place to find out more information about the schools, students, arc, CORE Educational Services and the Indiegogo campaign.

Sharing this email and the Indiegogo link (http://igg.me/at/bringbackafterschool) far and wide with your extended network.

Posting the Indiegogo link and a short description on Facebook and Twitter.

On September 4th, our students at Animo Watts College Preparatory held their second annual Karaoke Night! Students got to interact with their peers, teachers, and staff in this event. Everyone was very positive, energized and encouraging to all people taking the mic. It also gave an opportunity for our shyer students to open up and participate. Students were so excited about the event, they even invited the neighboring school and parents to come check out what arc has to offer!